Customer Reviews

The Life of a Geisha

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book while I was reading Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha" and found it quite helpful in pulling together mental pictures while I was reading the novel. "Memoirs" is so rich in detail that having beautiful pictures and historical sidenotes really enhanced my reading experience and helped me get more of a feeling for the environment in which the story takes place. "Life of a Geisha" also makes a fantastic coffee table book and conversation piece, with all it's magnificent photos, facts, and poems!

This book, whilst visually pleasing, does not really contain a whole lot of new information about geisha.

I also disliked the fact how the author kept on refering to Arthur Golden's book, "Memoirs of a Geisha" all the way through it. The reason why I disliked this is largely due to the fact that Memoirs IS a work of fiction, not non-fiction, and it should never be used as a reference for trying to present to us factual information about geisha.

If you don't care too much for pretty pictures, but want good solid information, this probably is not the book for you.

If you don't care too much for the information - but want lots of lovely pictures to feast your eyes on...by all means buy this book!

If, you are just as obsessed like I am with learning about the geisha culture, it probably wont matter to you, regardless! *chuckles*

The text is familiar to anyone who has read "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden or "Geisha" by Liza Dalby. The numerous illustrations are beautiful, and make this book well worth the purchase price.

Bought it for my wife as a Christmas present at her request. She adores the book, finds it very well written and insightful. An excellent resource to better understand these beautiful women of the arts.